After using linux for ~1 year by now, I fully switched from Win10 and now use CachyOS w/ hyprland on HyDE Dots.
Problems with Windows
I never actually went to Win11, just because of how it has more bloat than Win10. So I always used Windows 10 Pro or Home. Now the first problem was debloating everything, which required me to use AtlasOS. I really didn't care of what the people said online about security and whatnot on AtlasOS. Back then, all I care was about performance. I use to use a insanly cheap computer from my friend.
His family gave it to me after they wiped it clean and told me in a nutshell that it's useless to them. My previous computer was broken because of something with the screen & i got the 8 beeps of death. Back then, I was just a kid, so I was way too scared to take out the screens and check the wires to see what was wrong. (+ my parents wouldn't let me). So keeping AtlasOS on this Acer Aspire was really some new air for this computer. I would remember downloading slimjet + using firemin to limit the ram, even though I should've used chromin, but whatever. I couldn't play any games, so it was really just used for listening to music on spotify and browsing.
Even though I had a 1TB HDD, I was still not satisfied. This HDD was so slow, and windows would take ~40 seconds to boot + another 20 seconds before I can actually launch up an app. I've tried all the tricks, from extreme debloatation to all the way to making extra ram via virtual memory by paging files. So one day I went on YouTube and got a video about Linux. And that's how it all began.
The Linux Journey
As all people start out being scared of switching to linux, they try a VM. And that's exactly what I did. I used my dad's macbook pro (The 2015 retina one) and booted up ZorinOS on VirtualBox. I configed a bit of the settings and played around with the OS. It was really like giving candy to a kid. I was astonished at all the new things I can do that was differnet from Windows. I wasn't scared of the terminal line, cause I really never used it. We had flatpaks. It was an amazing experience and I loved it.
So I took my leave from my optimized windows 10 and booted up Arch Linux. Wait. what?? Yes. I wanted hyprland like any user, and arch was trending on youtube cause of how hard it was to install. So I wanted to give it a try. No VM, just literally straight onto my pc. So I followed a tutorial and once I was done I rebooted, to realize that I was stuck on my OEM splash screen, not even on GRUB. I tried for ~3 whole days, researching things like archinstall and other easy installation scripts. But at the end, I always got the same OEM splash screen. So I quit. and my distrohopping journey began.
I tried out various distros. Linux Mint, EndeavourOS, NixOS, and Archcraft. Now, out of all the ones that I've ended up using, I stuck up with Linux Mint. It was the easiest one, and worked great. The only problem was that there was some software that I needed to get installed that wasn't still supported on Linux. Like Premiere Pro. Yes, editing on this computer was a pain. So I swtiched back to Win10.
To keep it short, I tried tinkering out more on windows. I realized that Premiere Pro on a integrated graphics laptop was... actually not that bad? Except I fell in love with another editing program, and that was kdenlive. Before I realized it, kdenlive was actually on linux. Yet, I was using it on Win10. The problems of waiting for an application to load on win10 still persisted, but I knew that linux wouldn't fit my needs. And that's where I end this journey on Windows 10. Why? Cause I got a new pc.
The New PC
it was a not-so-bad upgrade from my old computer. Here's the specs
HP Z640 Workstation
- GPU: Quadro K420
- CPU: 2x Intel E5-2623 v4
- Storage: 2x 250GB SSDs
- Ram: 32GB of Ram (Locked ECC)
So as a happy guy, I started realizing all the problems of getting this PC. Before going onto that though, here's what my workspace looks like! Ignore how messy it is & note that I blurred the reflection of the monitor for privacy sake.
Back to the probems. I realized that my graphics card is horrible. I couldn't use hyprland on this graphics card cause of legacy drivers and discontinuation with my graphics card. So I sticked with windows for the time being. I did edit via Kdenlive still and it was a big upgrade. One day while scrolling through Facebook Marketplace, I found a Quadro 4000. It only costed 7 dollars and I was desperate for that extra GB of VRAM. (I had 1GB of VRAM on my Quadro K420). After getting this new graphics card, I realized my plan of combining the 2 cards into 1 doesnt work. So I had 2 gpus plugged in when I literally only use 1. Very power efficient past me... I did remember having endeavourOS dualbooted w/ Win10 when i got both of these gpus. Win10 was only for gaming & editing, while the rest is on Linux.
After a bit of time still on windows and I forgot if i dualbooted CachyOS or not (I 100% did delete EndeavourOS though), I got a message from one of my friends. He wanted to trade a GTX 1060, and not the regular one. I found a jackpot. A GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING X 6G. going from 2gb to 6gb of VRAM was like more than a dream for me. All he wanted was a AIO cooler that I got, and because I wasn't using it/failed trying to use it. I gave it to him in a heartbeat. And that's how I got a GTX 1060. Crazy thing was that I was always complaining at all those budget pc youtubers for saying to find a second hand gpu from a friend, because there was no way I would actually get a friend to even give me one. But, maybe I owe them an apology.
This is when I fullswitched to cachyOS. All for roblox. Yeah, wow. Sober, the application to run Roblox on Linux, was spreading around on my fyp page on youtube. People were getting crazy performance increases trying it out. And I wanted that. So i booted up my ventoy with my CachyOS ISO and downloaded HyDE. I have tried downloading HyDE on previous setups that ive had, so the process wasn't really that new to me. And there I was, on Linux. And this is where the journey ends. Because it's now present day, present time. (sorry for the stupid reference).
the end?
I optimized more out of my pc and actually started dualbooting Win10 again for Davinci Resolve, but I got it working on Linux, so I might fully delete it. I'm actually writing this HTML on Linux. Yes, the same HyDE dots, the same CachyOS.